Microsoft prepares to kill older versions of Internet Explorer on January 12th

The sun is setting on older versions of Internet Explorer, and Microsoft is making sure users know about it. The software giant isn’t just ending support for Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10, it’s also going to bug you about it. The final patch on January 12th will come with an update nag that reminds people still using these aged browsers that they ought to upgrade. Microsoft would certainly prefer people upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 or Microsoft Edge, if they’re using Windows 10. That’s not what users have been doing in the last few years.

The “end of life” patch will include more than the upgrade notification. It will also have the last round of security patches for these browsers. A browser is often the front line of defense from malware, so running something with known vulnerabilities is just asking for trouble. Microsoft is remaining firm that this is the end of the line for its old browsers. Apparently they want to avoid a “Windows XP” situation where the end of support is slowly push back again and again.

The process of upgrading to a new browser should be pretty straightforward for most consumers. The EOL notification will include basic instructions, but firms with more than 500 employees can contact Microsoft directly for assistance deploying an updated version of IE or Edge. Small businesses can seek help from a Microsoft certified partner. There will probably be a lot of upgraders too. About 20% of internet users are still running these old versions of IE, according to NetMarketShare. That’s only a bit smaller than the desktop user base of Internet Explorer 11 (about 25% of all browsers). Edge is hovering right around 2% despite being the default in Windows 10, which Microsoft was proud to note recently has seen high adoption.

Browser share over time.

Internet Explorer used to be the clear browser of choice for consumers. Anyone who used IE back in the early 2000s probably remembers how basic the feature set was, and that’s one of the things that gave upstarts like Firefox a chance. Microsoft was resistant to adding features like extensions and tabs to Internet Explorer for years. When Chrome came along, IE’s fortunes only got worse. Two years ago IE was still accounting for most desktop browsers on the internet with 58.2% market share. By last month, that had dropped by 10 points. During the same period, Chrome went from 16.4% to 32.2% of the desktop market.

Microsoft might be hoping to nudge some desktop users to use its newer browsers, but it really doesn’t have a prayer when it comes to mobile. Virtually no one uses Microsoft’s mobile browser because no one uses Windows on phones. The lion’s share of this market goes to Mobile Safari followed by Chrome.

Tagged In

With all these forced updates. Microsoft is comin in like a wrecking ball.

Okay I’m sorry.

No Joker

Microsoft has ALWAYS been crap.. How many MONOPOLY suits have been brought against them? Fascists

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In the past people complained that MS is still supporting really old web browsers, not warning users they are unsafe and that they should upgrade, leading to huge numbers of compromised systems.
Now people are complaining that MS is not supporting really old web browsers, warning users that they are unsafe and that they should upgrade, leading to smaller numbers of compromised systems.

Do you see how “popular wisdom” is actually worth even less than a half empty bag of horse dung? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. People will still find a reason to complain. But in the long run nagging people away from old IE versions can only be a good thing.

And the guys complaining and hiding updates will be roaming the boards all over the internet complaining about how their malware ridden system is MS’s fault.

Phil N

Gee, it’s hard to understand why Microsoft doesn’t want to maintain several old, decrepit previous generations of apps that they gave away for free. /s I don’t understand why they didn’t offer the ‘free upgrade’ to Win-10 to the few remaining Vista users as well just to get that monkey off of their back.

Phew. Thank goodness IE11 is still supported as I still use IE in a way for certain sites. Good thing I can import favs from IE to other browsers.

No Joker

Support MOZILLA… They Defend your right to internet Freedom & Security.
Support good businesses & boycott Monopolies/fascists

Fast_Turtle

Sorry but Mozilla isn’t about user rights anymore – just look at how much they’ve taken away from you in the UI itself. I’ll stick with Palemoon as it’s based on the Firefox Code but with a reasonable UI and none of the garbage the devs have imported. For Firefox, I stick with LTS 10.0 since the only reported security hole is in Javascript (noscript fixes it) and it doesn’t support any of the HTML 5 garbage (I don’t need video’s/ads/music and such in my browser, it’s a browser for sheeps sake).

http://www.facebook.com/yourdatingguru Albert Arul Prakash

someone still using IE. Surprising. I completely uninstalled from my system

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No, you haven’t uninstalled it completely. IE is an integral part of Windows and it’s not used only to browse the web. Plenty of components are used by other software. All you did is disable the “frontend”. Ignorance is bliss.

http://www.facebook.com/yourdatingguru Albert Arul Prakash

true, but as a browser, it is removed from my system. ignorance is not a bliss for many and I am well informed about their tight integration with other component and EU case due to that which lead to loosely coupled IE.

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What I meant is that you have removed basically a frontend that did no harm unless you actually used it for browsing (which I will assume you did not). It’s like removing a shortcut. The vulnerable components are still deeply integrated into your system and can be exploited through other programs that use them. There’s plenty of programs that use the IE engine for rendering with or without the browser shell. Windows itself uses plenty of the components.

Ignorance is bliss because there’s little you can do about this situation except upgrade IE, upgrade the OS or move away from Windows. If you don’t have these options then at least you should be able to sleep well since worrying about it won’t change anything. Your computer will be vulnerable nonetheless.

Fast_Turtle

Hate to say it but my new Asus Router with Asus-WRT on it works best with IE8. Seems they couldn’t be bothered to ensure the UI at least was compliant with Webkit/Firefox when they should have but that’s UI/Web Designers for you.

Jhollman

Only people whit zero knowledge of computing (like my grandma) still uses IE only because it came by default whit the OS and they just dont know there are other better options. I can say I’m happy to see the end of this shitty browser.

Ekard

Or people with the current knowledge… IE11 is no worse than chrome or Firefox. The only reason to chose one over the other is preference at this point. I mostly Use Firefox and Edge at this point.

Fast_Turtle

So You like the privacy and unstable mess called Win10 – I’ve got hardware that’s not bleeding edge and Win10 would BSOD on me if I looked at it funny. Shows that MS still doesn’t get it.

Another reason I’m sticking with Win7 is VPC 2007 support. I have a couple of programs that simply don’t run under XP Mode in Win10 so need the VM support for Win9x that VPC offers.

Harrison Ford

Internet Explorer can’t disappear soon enough. Edge is very good, but not feature complete yet, so it’s a work in progress. But it feels like Chrome used to feel. Now that Chrome is getting bloaty, I’ll be transitioning to Edge as soon as I can use adblock on it.

AlbiteTwins

I find it interesting that they are dropping security updates for Internet Explorer 10, but are still providing security updates for Windows Vista (which can’t use anything higher) until April 2017.

It seems like it would make more financial sense to drop both at the same time.

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